Found out our new neighbor is a sex offender. My husband checked the familywatchdog website before we decided to buy the house and thought the closest one was miles away. Well in the motel on the way here to sign on the house, literally already moving here with everything in the Uhaul, at 1am I decided to check out all of the offenders in the area. That is when I discovered the red pin beside our house. My husband had thought the pin was our house, because it is so close. I have an 8 yr old daughter and 14 yr old son. This has shattered the happiness of buying our first home. I didn't flip out on my husband because I know it was an honest mistake but I never in a million years would've agreed to live here, even though I love the house, if I had known. I found this article detailing the crimes:
GLOUCESTER — The board chairman of Hopesville Ministries Children's Home pleaded guilty Thursday to five sex charges involving girls at the home, bringing to eight his total number of guilty pleas.
Gerald D. Boettcher, 46, faces a maximum of 45 years in prison for his admitted relationships with three teen-age girls.
His family and friends seemed stunned and angry when the half-hour Circuit Court proceeding ended.
"I hope you rot in hell," his wife, Sheila, said to the mother of one victim.
Sheila Boettcher is executive director of the family-run Christian home for troubled children. Her mother, Ruth Seal, who co-founded the home in 1967 with her husband, the Rev. Frank L. Seal Jr., apparently didn't understand the brief court proceedings.
Although Judge Wiley R. Wright Jr. announced that anyone who was scheduled to testify could leave the courtroom, because a plea agreement had been reached, and although Gerald Boettcher stood and answered "guilty" to each of the five charges, when the judge adjourned the session, Mrs. Seal asked, "Don't we even get a chance to testify?"
When she was told that her son-in-law had pleaded guilty and that the trial was over, she collapsed in sobs, crying out, "We didn't get a chance. We didn't get a chance. ... He didn't do it. He didn't do it. ... They lied. They lied. They know they did."
A courtroom confrontation between Boettcher supporters and a victim's family was quickly quieted when deputies moved in and one officer threatened to put disorderly people in holding cells.
Boettcher showed little emotion during his daylong trial Wednesday and the session Thursday, when the defense was scheduled to present its case. He left the courtroom Thursday without turning to look at his family.
At the beginning of Wednesday's session, he pleaded guilty to three charges, and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Rosemary Bourne spent the balance of the day presenting evidence to support 15 other charges. Judge Wright dismissed two Wednesday night for insufficient evidence.
Two girls gave graphic testimony about frequent sexual activities with Boettcher in buildings at Hopesville, in his vehicles, in the Boettchers' home and at a construction site in Dutton where the Boettchers were building a house.
Boettcher was taken by ambulance from that site in June after attempting suicide. According to testimony by a Gloucester Sheriff's Office investigator and a hospital crisis counselor, he admitted then that he had had sexual relationships with girls at the home.
A computer forensic analyst who works for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service testified Wednesday that it took him a week, but he cracked a code that enabled him to remove documents from Boettcher's laptop computer involving the "Golden Hearts Club."
A 16-year-old said Boettcher had had her stand nude and recite vows to join the club, which he described as a global mentor/protegee organization. She said he told her she "had qualities that he hadn't seen in anybody in a long time."
Under the plea agreement, 10 charges were dismissed. They involved the same offense - taking indecent liberties with a girl in his care - but they were for months during which the victim couldn't remember specific dates and times.
The 16-year-old testified she moved to Hopesville when she was 14, and Boettcher started having intercourse with her two months later. The relationship continued, with frequent encounters, for more than a year, she said.
The activity came to light after a Hopesville resident saw Boettcher and a girl "kissing intimately" and reported it to a housemother, who called Social Services.
Boettcher pleaded guilty to carnal knowledge of a 14-year-old and to taking indecent liberties with her - the girl who is now 16 - and with two other girls, now 17 and 20. The offenses date from June 1995 through June of this year.
Sentencing was set for March 1. Boettcher is being held without bond in Gloucester Jail.
The state temporarily shut down Hopesville after he was arrested, pending the outcome of the criminal charges. Randy Davis, a spokesman for Attorney General Mark Earley, said Thursday that the Department of Social Services "will move rapidly to permanently revoke their license to operate."
I am just sick. We do have a large property and he is not close. There are trees. I have not seen him but I have seen his wife. I went to the sheriffs office to ask advice. The man I talked to said he had been in law enforcement there a long time and doesn't recall anyone having problems with the guy, didn't even know who he was. He also said that he would consider him low risk since it had been 18 yrs. i feel disgusted, embarrassed, and even ashamed that we bought a house anywhere near that Chomo.
I have been thinking about drinking to the point of feeling like I know I'm going to. I've been basically planning relapse. But last night my fortune cookie said "A smooth sea
never made a skilled mariner". If you will notice, that is what my avatar says. So I thought maybe I should come here and talk. I hate coming here and complaining but it's been therapeutic just to even talk about this. I haven't told any of my friends and family about the situation. I'm just too embarrassed.
Sorry this is so long. I just don't know what to do.